Statement on Court Denial of Detroit Human Right to Water

MWRO's statement on today's decision by the federal bankruptcy court NOT to stop residential water shut-offs, restore water to residential customers without water, NOR implement a water affordability based on fixed incomes for low-income seniors, families with children and persons with disabilities:

Federal Bankruptcy Court Judge Steven Rhodes

Of course, we are not surprised that our capacity to seek relief from the Federal Courts no longer exists! The fact that low income customers were ushered into court and testified how miserable their lives were because water was cut-off without an option for them to make arrangements with the DWSD could not have impacted the Court because the Court concentrated on what the 1% needed to continue their reign of terror tied to the Emergency Manager and this bankruptcy ploy. 

This is the humanitarian crisis of our times here in America, where every step we take is being analyzed to see which fights we launch as the corporate class encroaches on our standard of living.

Denying specific populations access to clean drinking water was today deemed legal even though rich and wealthy water customers receive a different standard of treatment. Millions are owed by these corporate pirates while $150 and two months behind is the rule applied to our constituency -- a position clearly supported by the Federal Court.

Detroit Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr and Michigan Governor Rick Snyder

Poor people, their children, seniors, the disabled, veterans -- it doesn't matter -- if you can't pay for water, you can't have it. Go to the river with a bucket and get what you need still remains the sentiment by this draconian class and they have no shame in taking this position.  This sham court-case was just that...a plot to look like justice would prevail if we just had a chance to plead our case.  The answer was always going to be NO!!!

So what are we going to do...give up the fight for social justice?  We think not! 

In the movie, The Untouchables, the question was asked, "What are you prepared to do about this??" When brilliant lawyers went to court to file suit against slavery, and against lynching, at first the Court said "NO"...there is no enforceable right to not be lynched if that is the custom in that area of the country!  The Court's explained that with the laws on the books at that time, Blacks, Hispanics, Native Americans, women, children, and other oppressed folks should be able to manage their lives and avoid pain and suffering, and if not, they had every right to return to Court! Madness and Madness today! 

Our case demonstrated great attorneys, courageous plaintiffs, determined advocates versus conservative, corporate courts who prefer the company of the rich & famous and will not rock the "status quo."  We march on...

Maureen D. Taylor

State Chairperson - MI Welfare Rights Org

Photo credits: http://michigancitizen.com/mc/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/6-RHODES.jpg
http://www.commondreams.org/news/2013/07/24/stop-attack-say-detroit-workers-citys-bankruptcy-reviewed

How Poverty Taxes the Brain

A new study finds evidence that living in poverty has dire negative consequences on one's ability think straight and accomplish the things needed each day.

"...In a series of experiments run by researchers at Princeton, Harvard, and the University of Warwick, low-income people who were primed to think about financial problems performed poorly on a series of cognition tests, saddled with a mental load that was the equivalent of losing an entire night’s sleep. Put another way, the condition of poverty imposed a mental burden akin to losing 13 IQ points, or comparable to the cognitive difference that’s been observed between chronic alcoholics and normal adults."

"The finding further undercuts the theory that poor people, through inherent weakness, are responsible for their own poverty – or that they ought to be able to lift themselves out of it with enough effort. This research suggests that the reality of poverty actually makes it harder to execute fundamental life skills. Being poor means, as the authors write, “coping with not just a shortfall of money, but also with a concurrent shortfall of cognitive resources.”" "This explains, for example, why poor people who aren’t good with money might also struggle to be good parents. The two problems aren’t unconnected." "“It’s the same bandwidth," says Princeton’s Eldar Shafir, one of the authors of the study alongside Anandi Mani, Sendhil Mullainathan, and Jiaying Zhao. Poor people live in a constant state of scarcity (in this case, scarce mental bandwidth), a debilitating environment that Shafir and Mullainathan describe in a book to be published next week, Scarcity: Why having too little means so much."

"... The limited bandwidth created by poverty directly impacts the cognitive control and fluid intelligence that we need for all kinds of everyday tasks. "“When your bandwidth is loaded, in the case of the poor,” Shafir says, “you’re just more likely to not notice things, you’re more likely to not resist things you ought to resist, you’re more likely to forget things, you’re going to have less patience, less attention to devote to your children when they come back from school.”" "At the macro level, this means we lost an enormous amount of cognitive ability during the recession. Millions of people had less bandwidth to give to their children, or to remember to take their medication."

"Conversely, going forward, this also means that anti-poverty programs could have a huge benefit that we've never recognized before: Help people become more financially stable, and you also free up their cognitive resources to succeed in all kinds of other ways as well....." Read the full article at: How Poverty Taxes the Brain.

Emergency Managers Attack Our Democracy

As we prepare to take a bus load of low income people to the Michigan Supreme Court tomorrow, here's another reminder of why this Emergency Manager issue is so significant. Governor Snyder and corporations are trying their hardest to take away our democracy. We've got to stop them from taking away from our families and communities any more of the little we've got left!

Read more about this: Dictators Over Communities of Color: Coming to a Town Near You at Michigan Forward.

Dignity for Poor People

An Open Letter from MWRO Member, Ann Grimmett:

At the 2010 USSF, I'm looking forward to none of the usual, tribalish, clanish, cliquish elitist, snobs looking down their noses at myself and other poor people! What I really want to see is this...

I WANT TO SEE DIGNITY RETURNED TO POOR PEOPLE!! I want to NOT see human beings forced (by this diabolically/tyrannical system) to relieve themselves in alleys, and doorways, because they have NO PLACE to go, sit down, roll off toilet paper, and wipe themselves when they're through defacating and urinating!

The world is in a state I could NEVER have imagined, because I didn't think I'd ever hear another poor person pass judgment on someone so unfortunate as to HAVE to relieve themself in so undignified a manner. Because truth be told that old adage, "when you gotta go you gotta go," is more than a "slogan." It is an inescapable FACT!

So, to all those who would judge, it would behoove you to imagine yourself in that position! Romans 14:4 "Who are you to judge someone else's servant?"

We need to put ourselves in a position to raise up our fellow man, not put him down!
That should "remain the domain" of the "Terrorists" that run this country (into the ground!), not the people who're being run over and over-run!

(Clip art courtesy of cksinfo.com)